The Padawan Trio
by Kablob
Summary: A series of short stories set many years before The Phantom Menace, focusing on Padawans Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luminara Unduli, Quinlan Vos and the escapades they get into together. In the first story, Luminara meets her new Jedi Master, who isn't what she expected.


"Master Yaddle?"

Though she knew she was supposed to ignore any distractions, Luminara couldn't help but open her eyes and look towards the door at the voice. Beside her, sitting cross-legged on his meditation mat, she saw that Obi-Wan had done the same. The interruption was by a Togruta youngling half Luminara's age, and at the sight of her Luminara's breath caught in her throat. There was only one reason she could think of that another youngling would interrupt a meditation class for students this advanced.

The diminutive Jedi Master opened her eyes and acknowledged the youngling with a look, her long, pointed ears twitching inquisitively. "Yes?"

The girl cleared her throat - only, Luminara suspected, to increase their suspense - and said "Master Yoda would like to see Initiate Unduli in the Council Chamber."

She heard Obi-Wan deflate even as she jumped to her feet. Finally! It was her turn!

Yaddle's full attention was instantly back on Luminara. "Unduli, dismissed you I have not."

Luminara tried to look appropriately chastised as she sat back down on her mat, but found it exceedingly difficult to keep a smile off her face. Yaddle glared at her sternly for a few moments, then slowly nodded and the corners of her mouth turned up in a faint return of Luminara's grin. "Go, you may," she said, gesturing to the door.

Luminara didn't have to be told twice. She barely heard Obi-Wan mutter "Good luck," as she all but sprinted out of the room, and Master Yaddle's rebuke to him for stopping his meditation was cut off by the door closing behind her. In the hallway Luminara looked down at the younger girl, who anticipated her question before she could ask it. "Yes, there's someone waiting with him."

Luminara's grin widened. It was official, then. "Thank you, I can find my own way there." They nodded politely to each other and Luminara rushed off in a run. There had been a tiny part of her worried that she was in trouble for something, but she couldn't think of any rules she had broken recently. Well, there was _one_ thing she could think of, but that had been Quinlan's idea. She was sure no one else knew about it. Apart from Obi-Wan. Luminara pushed the thought out of her mind. She didn't want to keep her new Master waiting.

Her Master.

Luminara's pace slowed as reality caught up to her excitement. She was a Padawan. But _whose_ Padawan? Many Knights and Masters had observed her cohort over the last few years, and which of them was interested in taking a Padawan was one of the biggest subjects of youngling gossip. Quinlan had been the first - which he had been incredibly smug about - chosen by Master Tholme a year ago. After him their group had dwindled one by one, as Stass and Rig and everyone else were promoted, until for the last two weeks it had been just her and Obi-Wan left.

Poor Obi-Wan. As the Initiate at the top of their class he couldn't be in any danger of washing out, but she didn't envy him for being the last. She especially didn't envy him being alone with Master Yaddle, whose three hundred years of teaching had made her almost as cranky as Master Yoda was. Quinlan was convinced that Yoda was saving Obi-Wan for himself, though Luminara noticed that Master Jinn paid close attention to him a few weeks ago even though the rumor mill said that he wasn't looking for a student. Either way, Obi-Wan wouldn't have to wait much longer.

But for Luminara, predicting her Master should have been a lot easier than most. Her homeworld of Mirial had a local Force-using order of it's own, and so the treaty that admitted it to the Republic had put certain restrictions on the Jedi Order's recruitment there. Mirialan Jedi were to be instructed in the culture and traditions of their homeworld, which was why Luminara kept her hair carefully covered and had a line of three small diamond-shaped tattoos on her chin. But more relevant to her current situation, Mirialan Jedi were trained by other Mirialan Jedi, with exceptions only if none were available.

So her pool of potential Masters was much smaller. Her training class had been observed by two Mirialan Knights over the last year, but the first chose the only other Mirialan in the group, and the second picked Agen. Who was a _Zabrak_. She had been annoyed about that for months, which was _not_ helped by Obi-Wan's teasing of her over it.

Apart from them there were hundreds of Mirialans in the Order, and Luminara had obsessively read up on all of the ones who weren't already training Padawans. But she had no evidence pointing to any of them, so she was essentially going in blind. She had probably been assigned rather than chosen, which Luminara couldn't help but feel disappointed about even though it generally wasn't considered any less prestigious. Sometimes the Council saw that a Master and Padawan were meant to be together before they did themselves, and so they made sure that they were paired. But she still didn't want to be apprenticed to someone who felt like they were stuck with her.

How was she already this close to the Council chamber? Luminara slowed down even more, but there was only so long she could delay before Yoda sent someone else after her, and being late was not at all the first impression she wanted to give her Master. Especially if they already didn't want her. She really hoped that they wanted her.

When she got to the turbolift that would take her to the Council chamber, Luminara took a moment to double check there she looked presentable - or rather, if there was any excuse she had to delay going up. But there was none; there weren't any stray hairs sticking out from under her hood, she didn't have any stains on her tunic, and she hadn't left her lightsaber in the youngling dormitory. She wrapped a hand around the hilt that hung from her belt, which she had constructed on a ship over Ilum a year and a half ago, and pushed the button to call the turbolift down. As she waited, she focused on her breathing and tried to calm herself. Padawans weren't nervous. Padawans weren't afraid.

The lift arrived empty and she rode it to the top of the spire. She could count on one hand the number of times she had been in the Council chamber, and never when it was in full session. Thankfully, the only people there today would be Luminara, Master Yoda, and Luminara's Master.

At least she only had two Masters to embarrass herself in front of.

The lift reaced the top long before she was ready for it to. Luminara took a final deep breath and stepped through the threshold. There was a small waiting room between the lift and the Council room, but the door between them was wide open. Luminara took it as an invitation to enter.

Coruscant Prime was high enough in the sky now for the room to be bathed in sunlight. Master Yoda stood near the window on the far side, looking out over the distant skyline. He didn't react to her appearance, but she knew he had to have noticed her. No one snuck up on Master Yoda. Luminara walked hesitantly towards him, and stopped in the center of the room.

"You wanted to see me, Master Yoda?" She clasped her hands in front of her and respectfully waited for him to reply.

"Ah, a good morning to you, Initiate Unduli," Yoda said. He slowly turned around to face her, the wood of his gimer stick ringing sharply against the chamber floor. "Know you, why I have summoned you here?"

She didn't technically know why she was here, even if logically there could be only one reason. "Not for sure, Master."

"Ah!" Yoda gestured at her with a stubby green finger. "Not certain. But have an idea, do you?"

Luminara glanced down at her feet and smiled nervously. "Yes, Master." Though she was starting to have her doubts, since despite what the Togruta girl had said Yoda was alone. Or was he planning on defying tradition to take her as his own Padawan? That seemed unlikely. "I'm being assigned to a Master?"

"No," Yoda said, and her heart sank.

"Chosen you were."

That took her aback. "Chosen?!" she blurted. Embarrassed at how loud it came out, she lowered her voice. "By who?"

"I take it that's my cue?"

Luminara spun around to face the source of the voice, who was leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed. He was definitely a Mirialan, with yellow-green skin and three horizontal rows of geometric tattoos, one above his eyebrows and two on each of his cheekbones. His hair was partially covered by a headscarf and he had a short, black beard framing his mouth and lower jaw. His eyes were almost as dark as the bushy eyebrows above them. He wore long, dark blue robes, and the lightsaber hanging at his belt was long enough that it had to be a saberstaff.

But the most striking thing about him was that Luminara had no idea who he was.

Yoda spoke up from behind her. "Congratulations are in order, Padawan Unduli. Your new Master, this is."

They approached each other carefully. Luminara stopped once he did, and then bowed formally. "I am honored to be your apprentice, Master," she said. "Although…I'm afraid I don't know who you are?"

Her Master looked thoughtful. "Well then, if you don't know who I am then how can you know that you're honored to be my apprentice?"

There was silence except for the echoing tap tap tap of Yoda's walking stick as he moved behind her. Luminara opened her mouth and closed it again. In all the times she had imagined this moment, it had never gone anything like this.

"…are you sure that I wasn't assigned to you?" The question seemed a bit impertinent, but she was honestly wondering if Yoda had been mistaken. "I mean, you've never watched my cohort before, how did you know that you wanted me?"

"I did actually, weren't you paying attention?" He looked at Yoda and shook his head. "Kids these days. When I was her age the Knights watching us train were all we talked about."

Yoda harrumphed. "Blend into the background, it seems you did."

Luminara racked her memory. She knew she would have noticed another Mirialan watching them, but for the life of her she could not remember him ever being there. "I'm very sorry Master, but I'm sure I've never seen you before."

"Hmm." Her Master scratched his beard and glanced up at the ceiling, as though he was questioning his own memory. "Are you sure?" His other hand fell to his side and tapped the long lightsaber hilt there. Luminara knew a hint when she saw it, and she knew that style of lightsaber too. It wasn't just a saberstaff, it was a very specific kind of saberstaff. Suddenly, it clicked.  
"You were one of the guards?!" There was often a member of the Temple Guard silently standing vigil during their classes, their ubiquitous robes, mask, and double-bladed lightsabers making it so no one could know their identity.

He looked back down - Luminara didn't even come up to his shoulder - and gave her a wide smile. "Ah, so she can solve a puzzle. My name is Edrin Tazani, and yes, I was in the Guard until not long ago."

"But I thought they served for life?"

"Often, but not always," Yoda said. "The choice to enter the guard is free, as is the choice to leave it. Surprising, was Master Tazani's desire to return to the field, as was his request for a Padawan. For you, he asked."

"But why me?" The revelation of his identity wasn't doing much to alleviate her confusion. She had never heard the name before.

"So many questions," Master Tazani said. "Surely you know your own worth…Luminara? Plenty of Knights would be honored to have you as their Padawan."

The odd pause before he said her name made her suspect that he had forgotten it for a moment. Great, either he's got bad memory or he just picked me at random. Fantastic. Luminara cleared the thoughts from her mind. "But why did you?"

"Well, I guess I've always had a soft spot for stubbornness," Tazani said, which prompted a chuckle from Master Yoda.

"Appropriate for you that is, Master Tazani."

Tazani gave Yoda a look of mock-offense before continuing. "Fair enough, Master. To be honest though Luminara, I saw you training with that other youngling, what's his name, the ginger one-"

"Obi-Wan Kenobi," Luminara supplied.

"That was it, thank you," he said. "Right. I saw you sparring with him, and I realized it was time to hang up my mask. The Force told me I needed to take a different path." He scratched his beard again. "That, or I just started getting stir-crazy from being cooped up in the Temple all the time. The Guard isn't the most social of organizations, you know?"

That wasn't very reassuring. "How long were you in the Guard, Master?"

"Seven years, four months, eight days. I resigned yesterday." He turned to Yoda. "Is there anything else, Master?"

"Only the formality," Yoda said. "Do you accept Luminara Unduli as your Padawan?"

Tazani nodded. "Of course. I look forward to training you, Luminara."

"And you, Luminara Unduli, do you accept Edrin Tazani as your Jedi Master?"

Luminara swallowed. Saying no at this point was a one-way ticket to washing out, so there was only one answer she could give no matter how many misgivings she had. She straightened her back and lifted her chin. "Yes. I look forward to learning from you, Master Tazani."

"Then by the will of the Force and the traditions of the Jedi Order, Master and Apprentice you are. Leave you alone together now, I will." Yoda turned away from them and began slowly making his way to the exit.

It seemed impolite to speak until Yoda had actually left the room, so Luminara stood across from her Master and they looked at each other without speaking for over a minute as Yoda hobbled across the floor. The regular tapping of his cane only made the situation more awkward.

When they were finally alone, Master Tazani spoke first. "You should go to your dorm and get your things, then go ask…well, I don't know who's in charge of room assignments anymore, but I'm sure you do, ask them where your new quarters are. Then meet me in the central courtyard after lunch."

Luminara carefully replied, "Jedi don't have possessions," to the suggestion that she had things to get, because that was what you were supposed to say.

Tazani nodded - rather sarcastically, she thought - to concede the point. "Yes, but that doesn't mean you don't have anything stashed under your pillow. I remember how it is, I'm not that old."

She didn't know what to say to that, so there was another awkward silence before Tazani switched topics. "Anyway, our first assignment is on Kuat, nothing too dangerous, but I'm sure it'll be exciting for you." He laughed briefly. "You know, it's been so long since I was in the field, I guess that this will be a learning experience for both of us, right?"

"Right," Luminara said.

_Force help me, I am going to die._


End file.
